So in fallout 3, what do you do to make caps when there's some expensive schematic or whatnot you want to buy?
where do you go to get the caps? how many skillpoints have you put into barter, and what level do you really start raking in the caps?

Even with really low barter skill, a high repair skill solves most money problems. Kill raiders, loot their armor, repair it, sell. Same with weapons etc.

And, of course, quests gives money

Money is an issue at the start of the game, but after a while I always end up having so much I don't know what to do with it. I've already fully upgraded my house and bought Clover and I never have to buy ammo or Stimpaks because I find many more than I use up. For example my current character Arachne has 140+ Stimpaks and 900+ Microfusion cells and none of them are from shops.

I guess my main source of income is ammo. It's weightless, every bastard with a gun I kill has some, and I only ever need 2-4 types for myself.

Usually, I just rob as many people in a settlement dry until I'm caught.

With high enough skill levels, I also just farm Enclave equiptment from Raven Rock and sell it all. Rinse and repeat.

I kill for caps.. men, women there all prey
(mutants/ghouls I kill for sport)
I also enslave people... including children...
its a tuff Fallout world outthere...

As a boy scout, I don't go mass-murdering, but Talon mercs come to me. I get good caps for their crap. Hey! That rhymed. How marvelous!

Plenty of awesome caps-makers, though!

* Loot Minefield and thew library for books, then sell them. 100 caps a book, about 1800 total. Other pre-war books scattered about, too.
* Do Those and collect nectar for Lesko. 40 caps a sample, probably 600-1000 in all.
* Sell Quantum to Ronald. 80 caps a bottle if you speech-check him. Up to 2400 in all.
* Geomap for Reilly. 30 caps a location. Depenmding on how much you explore, you could easily net over 3000 caps.
* Hit Raven Rock or Enclave camps. You can net hundreds of caps worth of equipment. Sell the nearly-broken stuff to the Outcasts, too.

children? you low life basterd. just wait when those kids grow up and you'll be old..

money? i dont need money, i need AMMO, electron charge pack... i waste 50 on a mutie, i get about 800-1500 every 3 days. that adds up too.... carry the 3............ -4300 electron charge packs.

but usually after i kill an enclave soldier and repair everything to reduce all the weight i can turn it in for quite a bit of caps.

If you want to get rich quick at low levels...

for good Karma, just clean out Raider camps and sell everything-- I like to head past Jury St to Evergreen Mills first thing after unloading all my Vault loot at Moira's. (leave Teddy Bears alone :wink_smile: )

for bad Karma, I trot down to Tenpenny and do bad, terrible, very satisfying things.

non-broken steel:
pre-war books selling
brotherhood of Steel tags


broken steel:
super mutant blood sample

I have a raider farm in the Fairfax riuns.....8-9 of them add up pretty fast, and it gives me a place to land when I'm bringing suits of armor to Casdin to trade without spawning a critter that might kill him.

IF they grow up.. and if they escape, I'll kill em' or enslave them again.
(just becouse one is old dosn't mean a thing little one. experiance always trumps braun...)

they'll live a slaves life in the Pitt.. while I will be enjoying my caps (500000+ as of now),
power, respect, & most importantly everybody will fear me.

By the skillful and sustained use of propaganda, one can make a people see even heaven
as hell or an extremely wretched life as paradise.

Is there actually anyone still left alive in your towns?

edit: Oh ye, the broken steel miniquest for handing in super mutant blood samples is a beast. Loads of money! :foodndrink:

Of course, obliterating Paradise Falls, Evergreen Mills, and Fort Bannister will net plenty pof caps as well. And rid the wasteland of some of its nastiest vermin to boot.

I pretty much scavange ruins for valueable junk to sell. I always carry my slave Clover with me so she can help hold some of the junk, and I sell it to merchants. Scavanging is probably the easiest and most fun way to to make money, cause it lets you explore and find all kinds of neat stuff.

My character mainly made his money/caps by repairing and selling stuff. Ten broken or almost broken guns won't net you a whole lot of caps, but nine used to repair a single one that can be sold most certainly does. Otherwise, I picked up and sold a whole lot of stuff that can be sold/turned in to the right people for caps, such as Sugar Bombs, Nuka-Quantum, BOS tags and Pre-war books. Plus, my character had this habit of enslavíng the occassional raider who attacked him, so there's some cash. And, of course, my character saved a lot of money by trading technology & scrap with the Outcast BOS in exchange for loads of stimpacks...

Clearing out raider camps camps will work fine.

If evil the slave trade can make you a lot of caps.

I prefer not to clear out camps to make caps (usually I would do this to get skilll books or mini nukes etc) becasue of the additional XP it awards early game and I try not to level up too fast.

So a non leveling up idea would be to hoard junk, collect schematics and create lots of custon weopons and sell them/exchange for amo.

Point Lookout moonshine quest was a nice little earner as well but again you need the right ingredients to make it work (and it also gives xp).

Best advice I would give is to avoid using guns early game whenever possible and use melee or unarmed instead. This saves a lot of caps becasue you aren't expending amo as quickly as you would if for example when you use a whole 10mm pistol clip to take out a Molerat or something. I find in the early game melee is fine for taking on 2-3 raiders (such as those outside nr Springvale School) and most criters (although I had 5 dogs attack me yesterday when I was level 4 and that was a close & tough fight!).

Your methods have served us well... but your thirst for blood is becoming somewhat of a liability. It will overpower you one day, and then you'll begin to reap the mess sown.

Understand that children are our nation's future, and with every one you enslave, you help doom America to its present state forever.

Anyway, on topic: my caps come from one of the most traditional methods: looting and selling. When I see a chance to make money, I tend to abuse the living heck out of it. Although caps are near enough useless to me now, I am still comforted by their presence -- it's like they're a safety cushion for when things go terribly wrong.

To be honest, I don't need that many caps to be happy in the game. I mostly try to hoard ammo and weapons for repairs and will keep a bit of money for traders to repair stuff I can't a second copy of.

This

I had 100+ assualt rifles at one stage